The obstacle is the way — ego is the enemy — stillness is the key
A fan tribute to the author who put ancient Stoicism back into millions of hands — through The Obstacle Is the Way, the Daily Stoic, and a little bookshop down the road from us in Bastrop.
A word from your neighbors
For years this little corner of the web has kept two fan sites we're quietly proud of — austen.com for Jane Austen and firth.com for Colin Firth. Two pillars: one for the page, one for the screen.
Ryan Holiday is our third pillar — and this one is personal. We're his neighbors. We live out here on the shores of Cedar Creek, just outside Bastrop, and we spend more time in The Painted Porch than we probably should admit — leaving each time with a book we didn't plan to buy.
So this is a fan's thank-you: for turning Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus into something a busy person can actually live by, and for betting on a bookstore in a small Texas town. And a small, hopeful ask — if you're ever up for it, Ryan, we'd love to have you on a podcast. We run the same Shure SM7B setup you do, right here by the creek. The kettle's on.
Fifteen books · two great series
The Obstacle · Ego · Stillness trilogy made Stoicism modern. The four-book Stoic Virtues series — courage, discipline, justice and wisdom — completed the map.
Turning trials into triumph, straight out of Marcus Aurelius: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Find a copy →How the thing that gets in your way is usually you. “Ego is stolen. Confidence is earned.”
Find a copy →The lost art of being calm, present and unhurried in a frantic age — mind, spirit and body.
Find a copy →366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance and the art of living — one page a day. The book behind the newsletter and the podcast.
Find a copy →Fortune favors the brave — the first of the four cardinal virtues.
Find a copy →Self-control and temperance — the power of saying no to yourself.
Find a copy →Justice, character and integrity — good values, good character, good deeds.
Find a copy →The capstone virtue: learn, apply, repeat. The fourth and final book in the Stoic Virtues series.
Find a copy →Trust Me, I'm Lying (2012) · Growth Hacker Marketing (2013) · Perennial Seller (2017) · Conspiracy (2018) · Lives of the Stoics (2020, with Stephen Hanselman) · The Daily Dad (2023) · and The Daily Stoic Journal.
See all the books & order them → The Painted Porch reading list →
On YouTube · Daily Stoic
The Daily Stoic channel is one of the largest homes for Stoicism on YouTube — walk-and-talk video essays, “watch this when life gets hard” meditations, and numbered lessons drawn straight from Marcus, Seneca and Epictetus. A few to start with:
Three hours, well spent
If you want the whole story in one sitting, Ryan sat down with Mark Manson for a near-three-hour “Comprehensive Guide to Stoicism” on the SOLVED podcast — from Zeno on the shipwreck to Marcus Aurelius on the throne. It's the best single on-ramp we know of.
The road map
The Daily Stoic Podcast · last 30 days
A short Stoic meditation nearly every day, plus a longer conversation most weekends. Here's the recent run of interview episodes (as of late August 2026):
Between them, daily meditations like “11 Things Stoics Never Do,” “Who Was Marcus Aurelius' Favorite Stoic?” and “The Daily Routine That Built Marcus Aurelius.”
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations · the line that became The Obstacle Is the Way
912 Main St · Bastrop, Texas
Ryan and Samantha Holiday opened this small, fiercely curated bookshop in downtown Bastrop in the thick of the pandemic — “the craziest thing we ever did,” he's called it. Instead of stocking everything, they stock a few hundred titles worth changing your life over.
It's our local. Staff picks, a Quarterly Classics book club, a wall of Stoic medallions, even records. If you're passing through Bastrop, go — and say hello to the porch for us.
The through-line
Ryan's gift is translation — taking the Stoics off the shelf and into ordinary life. A few of the ideas he returns to again and again:
Love your fate. Don't just accept what happens — make the most of it, as if you'd chosen it.
Remember you will die. Not morbid — clarifying. It's why he sells that medallion; it puts today in scale.
Focus only on what's up to you — your judgments and actions. Let the rest go. Straight from Epictetus.
Rehearse what could go wrong, on purpose, so nothing lands as a surprise and nothing owns you.
Of mastering a craft, of real insight, of longevity. Confidence is earned; ego is stolen.
Every obstacle carries the opportunity to improve your condition. The path through is the path.
What still amazes us
Two thousand years before the first psychology lab, the Stoics worked out a framework for living that has held up remarkably well — and much of it has since been confirmed by modern science and psychology. Cognitive behavioral therapy borrows almost directly from Epictetus.
No grant. No lab. No two hundred paid undergraduates. Just a handful of people thinking carefully about how to live — and getting it right.
1987 – today
The marketplace
Where to start, and where to go deep. Affiliate links — purchases support this fan archive at no extra cost to you. Better yet: buy them signed from The Painted Porch.
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